Sunday, 4 September 2011

A New Look...For A New Book?

WARNING!!! THIS POST CONTAINS REALLY BAD PHOTOS

At some point last year I made a promise to myself that I would not spend any more money on my Wood Elf army until they got a new army book, even though I've been finding them difficult to win with. My reasoning for this was twofold; firstly I'm fully inducted in the cult of Cheaphammer and I had a perfectly serviceable army. Secondly, I know in the pit of my stomach that if I spend money chasing a more effective army, any investment I made would be rendered irrelevant by the changes GW made to the Wood Elves - it's the law of new books: if it's good, it will get worse; if it's bad, it will get better; if it's new and expensive, it will be awesome.

Therefore, I've been struggling along with my army as it was, limping from battle to battle vainly hoping that GW would get round to the Wood Elves so that I can close the power gap. That was until Friday.

I dropped my army.

The major damages were to the cavalry - specifically the Wild Riders. Heads, weapons and bases went flying. I swore a bit. Well...a lot.

My initial reaction was to say sod it, put the Elves away and move on to the Bretonnians full time - kind of like I did with my Vampires (they only come out these days when I'm really bored of losing with the Wood Elves). However, I am at heart a Wood Elf player - it was the army I wanted as a kid. So I've decided to treat this as an opportunity to revisit, repair and improve my army and hopefully get this done before any new book appears, and work has already begun.

Here's how the Glade Guard looked previously:

They were painted about five years ago when I was just getting back into wargaming. As you can see, they're a bit shiny. This is because I used ink washes quite heavily and didn't get round to matt varnishing them. The colours are also a bit flat (the faces lack depth) and the bases are boring.

Therefore, I've begun with finally giving them a coat of matt varnish to remove the shine, and then add depth and definition with a simple coat of Devlan Mud wash. Some models may need a little highlighting too. I've also added a little static grass on the base (dead grass colours, to add to the autumn theme of the army). I may, later on add a few twigs and stones as well.

Here's how the Glade Guard look now:

I think that with just a little work, the models have been significantly improved. If and when a new book comes out along with new models, I'll be able to work on painting them to a higher standard and not have to worry about them not fitting in to the army.

Nothing too flashy or clever, but easy enough to do and with a definite impact means that I can feel positive about repairing and rebuilding broken models over the weeks/months ahead.